£1m: value for money?Whilst the number 9 shirt remains unfilled at Newcastle United, it certainly won’t ever be Nile Ranger’s as was once speculated. The player is well and truly transfer-listed and beginning to attract suitors.
It’s all go at Newcastle isn’t it? Between the rumours and the actual transfers that have taken place it’s turning out to be an interesting summer. Let’s hope it all works out for the best.
To quote Donald Rumsfeld: there are known knowns, there are known unknowns and there are also unknown unknowns. One of Newcastle’s known unknowns is who will be filling the number 9 shirt given that Demba Ba hasn’t been awarded that privilege. Maybe the club is retiring it for a while or maybe they still plan to make what the press would call a ‘marquee signing’ who be awarded the number 9.
One thing that’s for certain (a known known, I’d say) is that Nile Ranger won’t be getting our number 9. In fact he won’t be getting a black and white shirt at all next season if the speculation is to be believed.
Allegedly Bolton have expressed an interest in young Ranger to – at least in part – compensate for Johan Elmander’s departure to Galatasaray. Apparently Millwall were keen on Ranger too but their finances don’t stretch to the £1m fee Newcastle are asking for him, but such a fee should not prove to be a problem for Bolton. (more…)
Who are we after?A summary of the current transfer targets at Newcastle United, not a single one of which has actually been confirmed by the club!
As another week gets underway, we can no doubt expect a load more transfer speculation relating to our club because it is after all silly season.
So I thought I’d kick off by doing a brief summary of where we supposedly stand with some of the transfer targets rumoured to date.
First of all, let’s be clear about one thing: the club have not confirmed a single transfer in and have only confirmed the exit of Sol Campbell and Shefki Kuqi, so that is our official transfer status at the moment.
Mehdi Abeid
By all accounts this is actually a done deal and the player himself has confirmed that he has agreed a deal with Newcastle after being welcomed and encouraged by Tiote and Ben Arfa. The 18 year old attacking midfielder has played most of his football for the Lens B team, so I’m guessing he’s down as one for the future. (more…)
Shown the exit?It seems that Nile Ranger is surplus to requirements at Newcastle United.
According to a fistful of press reports, Nile Ranger is being shown the exit at St James’ Park as he does not figure in Alan Pardew’s future plans.
To be honest, he never really got properly started at Newcastle. He was used mainly as a substitute striker and goals seemed to elude him.
His tally of 3 goals in 58 games doesn’t really tell the whole story because for a lot of those he won’t have been on the pitch for 90 minutes (and was probably only on as a late sub for most) but it’s still not a particularly good set of stats for a striker.
Ranger showed some promise and seemed to be able to hold the ball up well, but he scored very few goals.
The 21 year-old was often criticised for poor time-keeping and not being disciplined enough and of course he recently attracted some bad press by posing with a (allegedly fake) gun at a party, after which a photograph of the pose – taken by one of his so-called friends – found its way into the public domain. (more…)
Ranger prepares to shootAs a striker, young Nile Ranger hasn’t been the best at hitting the target so on that logic I think this is a story that has been blown way out of proportion. When he shoots, he often misses, gaining him the appropriately affectionate nickname of “Nil Ranger”.
Jokes aside, the above is a new picture leaked to the Sun who of course paint Nile Ranger as a hitman for the Wallsend Mafia.
NEWCASTLE United star Nile Ranger was quizzed by club officials yesterday after he posed “like a gangster” with a GUN.
Pardon me if this post is a little messy in places; it’s difficult to organise your thoughts when you’re in fits of laughter.
If you manage to read beyond the above quote without any kind of fluid pouring out of your nose, you’ll find out that it is in fact a replica firearm that was being carried about for whatever reason, presumably in public.
What’s missing from the article is that Nile was at his girlfriends house and they had a few friends over and one of the silly Southerners pulled out the replica gun and everybody decided that they wanted to hold the magical chrome plated object. Of course the gun came to Nile, whose girlfriend is aroused by men with guns and she took a picture. (more…)
Like a swan, only more Yugoslavian. And taller.The 34 year old Yugoslavian has barely had a sniff of a football, but can he do a job for us?
I’m probably in the minority when I say that Shefki should get more than 3 minute cameos here and there, but I was also in the minority when I backed Leon Best and look how he turned out for us. Of course, the 34 year old Finn doesn’t exactly have age on his side but he made more of an impact in front of goal in his 5 minutes on the pitch at Villa Park than young Nile Ranger made all game.
After being haunted by the turmoil of his youth and later seeing a tragedy strike his close friend, and fellow footballer, Besian Idrizaj who unfortunately passed away aged 22 after a heart attack. Kuqi’s face is weathered by age and experience, but the question still remains: can he do the Newcastle United shirt a service?
Alan Pardew has mentioned that Kuqi’s personality would be perfect to wear the famous number 9 but also concedes age and lack of ability would ensure he never wears the famous shirt and to an extent, I agree. Shefki Kuqi has spent most of his footballing life in the Championship with occasional spells in the Premier League and he has never and will never set the footballing world on fire. (more…)
